• He was the fifth child of Mohammed Sarwar Khan and Ayesha Begum, in a family of 13 brothers and sisters

• He ran an army canteen for British soldiers in Pune. To supplement the measly pay of Rs 36 a month, he sold fruit

• He came to Bombay Talkies looking for a job as a writer. He was spotted by Devika Rani and landed the lead role in Jwar Bhata in 1944. He drew a salary of Rs 1000 a month with Rs 200 extra as ‘war allowance’

• He was advised to change his name. There was a choice of three Dilip Kumar, Jahangir and Vasudev. It was reportedly Devika Rani who finalised the name Dilip Kumar.

• His first big hit was the Nitin Bose-directed Milan (’46)

• He sang a song with Lata Mangeshkar in Musafir, Laagi nahin chuute Rama chaahe

• He learnt to play the sitar for Kohinoor

• He was fascinated with Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and played Heathcliff in three films - Mela , Arzoo and Dil Diya Dard Liya

• For Mughal-e-Azam, he had a special wig made in London. He was initially reluctant to play Salim because he reasoned that he did not look like a prince

• He was honoured with the title of Padma Bhushan in ‘91 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in ‘95

• He married Saira Bano in ‘66 at the age of 44

• He was offered Omar Sharif’s role in Lawrence of Arabia but he refused. He also turned down Mehboob Khan’s Mother India

The 85-year-old actor, who has delivered landmark performances in films like “Devdas” (1955), “Mughal-E-Azam” (1960), “Ganga Jamuna” (1961), “Karma” (1986) and others, graced the occasion despite his ailing condition. He could even barely walk to the stage.

Born in 1922, Dilip Kumar (aka Yusuf Khan) will be conferred the “One Time Award for Life Time Achievement” in the field of acting.

Starting his career in 1944, Dilip Kumar has starred in some of the biggest commercially successful films from the late 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1980s.

He was the first actor to receive a Filmfare Best Actor Award and holds the record for most number of Filmfare Awards won for that category. Though he has done all kinds of films - he balanced a wide variety of roles such as the intense Andaz (1949) with the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the dramatic Devdas (1955) with the comical Azaad (1955) and the historical romance Mughal E Azam (1960) with the social Ganga Jamuna (1961).

In the 1970s roles dried up for Kumar and after 1976 he left films for a five year break. In 1981 he returned with a character role in the blockbuster film Kranti and continued his career playing central character roles in hits such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991).

He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1995, apart from getting the highest civilian honour Nisha-e-Imtiaz from the Pakistan Government. He continues to be a living icon for the present generation of film stars.

Dilip Kumar is a source of inspiration for many younger generations. He is an institution in himself. He is considered to be an intense actor. His films are commendable. He left his mark in this Indian film industry. Karma, Mashaal, Duniya, Mazdoor, Shakti, Bairaag, Mughal-E-Azam etc are some of the masterpieces. His acting skill is appreciated by one and all.

Melody queen Lata Mangeskar’s journey from Beju Bawra to Veer-Jaara is commendable. She has lended her voice to many female actresses. Her songs croon in our ear always. Her name will remain immortal in the history of Indian Cinema.  Both of them are elated to receive this prestigious award. Along with them, Bengal’s prominent director Tapan Sinha will also be awarded. They are the gems of Indian film industry. Hats off to them.

Paigham was not a heavy dialogue based film and was a nice watch where both the actors had done remarkable work in the roles given to them but they did not appear together again. Subhash Ghai dared to cast this wonderful cast together for his film Saudagar. While Dilip Saab’s dialogue delivery has been mesmerising, Raj Kumar is also known for his wonderful voice and attractive dialogue delivery and both were masters of Urdu.

It was an interesting clash on screen. Its said that everybody tried to frighten Subhash Ghai and said that he would not be able to finish his film. But when Subhash Ghai visited Raaj Kumar and asked him if he would have any reservation, problem working with Dilip Saab, Raaj Kumar had replied,” Kyon Jani ! what kind of reservation, he is my biggest inspiration”.

Such was the acting caliber of this giant of the Indian film industry that he outperformed his peers in all sort of roles, be it an intense one, or dramatic, romantic, social or even comedy. But, he will always be remembered as the “Tragedy King” of Bollywood as those were the roles which always made people adore him. Rightly, he went on to become the first Indian actor to be awarded with the Filmfare best actor award.

Dilip Kumar was a great humanitarian as well and has worked for the poor and helped build bridges to overcome the cultural and communal gaps between India and Pakistan. For those efforts of his, he had been awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 and the Nishan-e-Imtiaz in 1998. The latter being the highest civilian award conferred by the government of Pakistan which he asked to return during Kargil war.

Devdas, a character who is forbidden his beloved for social reasons, and drinks his life away, is one of the key renouncer figures in modern Indian literature and cinema. When a second film version was made in 1955, it was inevitable that, of the contemporary crop of film stars, it would be Dilip Kumar who played the lead role.

The Devdas of 1955 is the Devdas for generations of Indian audiences. The tragic hero and the failed love became such staples of folklore that even today any variation on the said theme evokes a comparison with Dilip Kumar.

The film deals with reincarnation and had a gothic noir feel to it. The film was one of Roy’s greatest commercial successes.

If you haven’t watched it yet, here’s why you should: it was nominated for 9 Filmfare Awards and won ALL of them!!! Yes, all of them including best film, best director and best music director.

Aamir Khan too was conspicuous by his absence and Farah it seems had a long standing wish to have the three Khans – Shah Rukh, Salman and Aamir dancing together alongside each other for the first time on the 70mm screen.

Shah Rukh Khan wanted his Main Hoon Na co-star Amrita Rao to be a part of the special song too. But director Farah Khan, we learn, had bigger plans. She wanted to have a complete Main Hoon Na segment in Deewangi song. That is to say she had hoped to have Main Hoon Na’s leading cast Sushmita Sen , Amrita Rao and Zayed Khan along with SRK to be featured together in a separate part of the song. Amrita says, “I couldn’t shoot for the song as I was busy shooting for Athidhi in Austria. Farah would call me up every time and badly wanted Sushmita, Zayed, Shah Rukh and myself to do a Main Hoon Na sequence but I just could not get out of my schedule.” And Farah went ahead with only Zayed and Shah Rukh where they do their trademark ‘head rubs’ from Main Hoon Na .

Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu who were the only senior actors who could not make it for the song though Shah Rukh and Farah wished for it desperately. Shah Rukh who was initially tagged of having a strong Dilip Kumar hangover has always looked up to the senior Devdas as his idol.

From the yesteryear celebrities, King Khan also wanted his personal favourite Zeenat Aman to add grace to the song. Not to forget Zeenat’s popular costar – the style icon Feroz Khan . Plus his son Fardeen Khan ! But both father and son were out of town.

So Shah Rukh says that what you saw in Om Shanti Om was not big – at least not as ‘magnanimous’ as he and Farah had visualized it to be, though for the audiences this was as grand as it could get. The king feels that if he could manage to get all the ones they had planned for that could have been huge. So SRK says, “Now I feel I will have to make a sequel to Om Shanti Om and request all the celebrities who missed out from the original song to shoot a song with me in the sequel”.

We would eagerly wait for ‘ OSO 2’ , Shah Rukh!